05/18/04 -- Discipline problems in school are seriously threatening student achievement and driving teachers out of the classroom, according to a poll of parents and teachers released by Public Agenda May 11.
While only a handful of troublemakers cause most disciplinary problems, the report finds, "the tyranny of the few" leads to a distracting and disrespectful atmosphere. Teachers in particular complain about the growing willingness of some students and parents to challenge teacher judgment and threaten legal action.
The report, Teaching Interrupted: Do Discipline Policies in Today's Public Schools Foster the Common Good?, was prepared for Common Good, a bipartisan coalition advocating legal reform.
Nearly eight in 10 teachers (78 percent) said students are quick to remind them that they have rights or that their parents can sue. Nearly half of teachers surveyed (49 percent) reported they have been accused of unfairly disciplining a student.
Among the solutions proposed by parents and teachers are stricter enforcement of existing rules of conduct, alternative schools to help chronically disruptive students, and limiting parents' ability to sue schools over disciplinary decisions.
More than one in three teachers said colleagues in their school had left because student discipline was such a challenge, and the same number personally considered leaving.
Many complained about being more in the "crowd control" business than in teaching.
"Rowdiness, disrespect, bullying, talking out, lateness, and loutishness -- these misbehaviors are poisoning the learning atmosphere of our public schools," says Public Agenda President Ruth A. Wooden.
"At a time when the achievement stakes for students have never been higher," Wooden says, "the fact is that in school after school, a minority of students who routinely challenge legitimate school rules and authority are preventing the majority of students from learning and teachers from teaching."
"The present legal environment undermines order in schools by enabling students and parents to threaten a lawsuit over virtually anything," says Common Good Chair Philip K. Howard. "The legal system must strike a better balance between the claimed rights of individuals and the legitimate interests of society as a whole."
"Student discipline is a perennial issue for schools," says NSBA General Counsel Julie Underwood. "In public schools we have to balance student rights with classroom discipline. Administrators and school boards have to consider student rights when making student disciplinary decisions."
Among additional findings in the report:
• Ninety-three percent of teachers believe it is the public schools' job to teach children to follow the rules so they are ready to join society. Yet nearly eight in 10 teachers said their school has students who should be removed and sent to alternative schools.
• More than half of teachers said that behavior problems often stem from teachers who are soft on discipline because they can't count on parents or their schools to support them. And 85 percent believe new teachers are particularly unprepared to deal with behavior problems.
• More than half the teachers surveyed (52 percent) said their school has an armed police officer on school grounds.
• Eighty-two percent of teachers and 74 percent of parents surveyed felt that parents' failure to teach their children discipline ranked as one of the biggest causes of school behavior problems.
• One-fifth of parents reported that they have considered moving their child to another school or have done so already because discipline and behavior was such a problem.
• Seventy percent of teachers and 68 percent of parents strongly support the establishment of "zero-tolerance" policies so students know they will be kicked out of school for serious violations. Another 23 percent of teachers and 20 percent of parents said they "somewhat support" zero tolerance.
• The vast majority of teachers (94 percent) believe special education students should be treated just like other students, unless their misbehavior is related to their disability.
But teachers said this is not happening now. Seventy-six percent percent of teachers agree that special education students who misbehave are often treated too lightly, even when their misbehavior has nothing to do with their disability.